Submission Guidelines: The Community Word welcomes submissions of opinion articles on any topic. Submissions should be exclusive to Community Word and should be no longer than 500 words. Authors should submit a brief bio of several sentences to publish with their article. We do not consider anonymous submissions. Send submissions to: communityword@yahoo.com or Community Word, 400 NE Jefferson, #400, Peoria, IL 61603. Community Word also welcomes letters-to-the-editor. Submissions should be no longer than 200 words.

Featured Posts

BY CLARE HOWARD Warthog Wheat stretched to the horizon and chattered in a breeze as storm clouds banked in the distance. Harold Wilken and his son Ross were anxious to get out into the field to start harvesting their organic…

Two of the greatest mysteries that still haunt us as Americans are who killed JFK and Dr. King. What is not a mystery is how we have treated each other so poorly and continue to celebrate a president who promotes violence and racism and sexism. Why in a world of technological success we are still intrigued by violence? We cheered when we encamped Japanese Americans, and when we called the Irish drunks and isolated them in this country that once embraced them as citizens. We labeled the Italians thugs and gangsters and then romanticized crimes with Capone and other gangsters hence good fellas.

We labeled black Americans niggers and capitalized on the brand of the term and then romanced the thought of dropping the “er” and embracing the “go” in the word. We embraced the Cubans, allotted grants and even utilized a section of Florida to give homage, but isolated Mexicans and blamed the influx of drug trafficking and violence labeling them America’s new thugs. We ousted a religious group and coined them terrorist, intermixing all people that practice under Islamic law as the enemy.

We have cheered on hatred and celebrated diminishing the lives of others, we as a country have justified our actions in the name of democracy. We have bombed homes of innocent women and children. We have beaten and hung and kept body parts of our own citizens as souvenirs. We have developed a culture of us and them.

America, this great country that we live in that we call home, the melting pot of all meccas, still has a history of hatred, division and bad culture. The day that we remember the pain and suffering we have exposed others to, including our own citizens, is the day that we begin to embrace who we really are and advocate for one another as fellow citizens. Until then we will always find someone that we will ostracize based on race, religion, age, gender or socio economic status. Be the change that you want to see in the world. Food for thought keeping it real.